HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL. 



HAYS, ALEXANDER. 



427 



.ntroduction, in which is recorded this truth, 

 "Neither the front nor the back entrance of 

 the Custom House opens on the road to Para- 

 dise." 



On the advent of a new administration, in 

 1849, he was again displaced. At this time he 

 left Salem and resided in Lenox, in a little red 

 cottage on the shore of the lake known as the 

 ' Stockbridge Bowl." Here he wrote one of 

 his best romances, " The House of the Seven 

 Gables." which, as well as the " Scarlet Letter," 

 attained immediate popularity. The "Blithe- 

 dale Romance " appeared in 1852, the year in 

 which he removed from Lenox to Concord. His 

 " Life of Franklin Pierce " was published during 

 the canvass which resulted in Mr. Pierce's elec- 

 tion ; and the new President signified his grat- 

 itude, and at the same time gratified friendly 

 feelings long established, by bestowing upon 

 Mr. Hawthorne the place of L'nited States 

 Consul at Liverpool, said to be the most lucra- 

 tive at that time in the President's gift. This 

 office he resigned in 1857, and, after a period 

 of continental travel, returned to the United 

 States, since which his ''Marble Faun," and a 

 collection of sketches 'of English scenery, 

 character, and life, entitled " Our Old Home," 

 have been published. Besides the books already 

 enumerated, Mr. Hawthorne was the author of 

 "True Stories from History and Biography" 

 (1851); "The Wonder Book, for Boys and 

 Girls" (1851); "The Snow linage, and other 

 Twice-Told Tales" (1852); " Tanglewood 

 Tales " (1853). He also edited " Journal of an 

 African Cruiser " (1845). He was engaged till 

 within a few weeks of his death upon a novel 

 which was to have appeared in the " Atlantic 

 Monthly;" but which, like Thackeray's last 

 work, was left unfinished. 



Mr. Hawthorne's reputation a? a remarkable 

 writer of fiction, and an agreeable essayist, was 

 by no means confined to the L'nited States. 

 His most important works have been repub- 

 lished and widely read in England, and some 

 of them, in the form of translations, have been 

 popular in Germany. If his admirers have not 

 been so numerous as those of many other 

 authors, they have been warm and steady ; and 

 it is safe to say that his place in literature as a 

 great and original writer is permanently settled. 

 His books are perhaps too often pitched in a 

 minor key to gratify the multitude. It is true 

 that he is not without a rare vein of humor, 

 still more fascinating, perhaps, because it is 

 never boisterous, which strangely tempers the 

 sombre tone of his pages ; but the prevailing 

 spirit of his writings is somewhat melancholy, 

 and it occasionally rises into the weirdly tragi- 

 cal. In some of his books this is carried to a 

 pitch which the reader, even of ordinary sensi- 

 tiveness, finds almost painful. He is a master 

 of that unusual art, oftener professed than ex- 

 celled in, of extending to strictly natural events 

 the deepest interest of the supernatural. He 

 makes living men and women do a ghostly 

 work ; and he is a consummate creator of pic- 



turesqueness of situation. Some of the scenes 

 in the "Scarlet Letter," in the "House of 

 Seven Gables," and in the "Blithedale Ro- 

 mance," have a terror akin to that with which 

 in childhood we trembled over the pages of 

 Mrs. Radclifte; yet Mr. Hawthorne worked 

 only with homely and almost unheroic materials, 

 and in the most remarkable of these works had 

 no historical or legendary assistance. "With 

 his humor was associated also the quality of 

 pathos, which is rarely separated from the 

 humorous. There are passages in the " Scarlet 

 Letter" especially of woman's love and suffer- 

 ing, and of maternal tenderness, which are not 

 only not surpassed by any thing in English 

 literature, but are absolutely unique in their 

 character. His earlier writings were exceed- 

 ingly graceful and delicate in thought and 

 language, yet there was in all their grace and 

 beauty a certain monotony of manner which 

 afterwards disappeared. As he went on his 

 style became more vigorous and more varied, 

 sparkling with wit and condensed in thought. 



In his personal character Mr. Hawthorne 

 was amiable, and where he was on terms of 

 intimacy agreeable in conversation; but he was 

 intensely shy, and in general society the em- 

 barrassment produced by his shyness was often 

 mistaken for moodiness and want of social 

 sympathy. His convictions on moral and 

 political questions lacked the positive, decided 

 element, and his hesitation and uncertainty in 

 regard to public measures was sometimes un- 

 justly imputed to a cold and unsympathetic 

 nature. 



His death was sudden, though his health had 

 for a long time been infirm. He was on a 

 journey with his friend the Ex-President Pierce 

 to the White Mountains for his health, and had 

 stopped for the night at the Pemigewasset 

 House, Plymouth, where he died before morn- 

 ing. 



HAYS, ALEXANDER, a brigadier-general of 

 U. S. Volunteers and brevet lieutenant-colonel in 

 the U. S. Army, born at Pittsfield, Pa., in 1820, 

 killed in the battle of the Wilderness, May oth, 

 1864. He graduated at the Military Academy 

 of West Point, in 1844, having as classmates 

 Grant, Hancock, and Pleasanton, entered the 

 army as a brevet second lieutenant of the 4th 

 U. S. infantry, and on the 18th of June, 1846, 

 was fully commissioned a second lieutenant of 

 the 8th infantry. He fought during the Mexi- 

 can war, and was breveted from May 9, 1846, 

 first lieutenant for gallantry at the battles of 

 Resaca de la Palma and Palo Alto. Subse- 

 quently he was sent to Western Pennsylvania 

 on recruiting service, and having in a short 

 time enlisted a large number of men, he pro- 

 ceeded with them to Yera Cruz, and marched 

 thence to the relief of our garrison at Puebla. 

 Soon after arriving the second time in Mexico, 

 he was appointed acting assistant adjutant- 

 general to Brig.-Gen. Lane, and distinguished 

 himself in the conflict near Atlixco. On the 

 12th of April, 1848, he resigned his connection 



